BABSON PARK, Mass.— Junior Jimmy Fallon (Milton, Mass) tallied a goal and an assist as Babson College completed a weekend sweep of Fitchburg State University, 3-2, in game two of the non-conference weekend series Saturday afternoon inside the Babson Skating Center.

With the victory, the Beavers are off to a 2-0-0 start to the season for the first time since 2021 while the Falcons drop to 0-2-0 on the young campaign.

Sophomore Evan Brown (Little Silver, N.J.) and senior Brendan Kennedy (Georgetown, Ontario) also scored for the Beavers, and seniors Will Holland (Charlotte, N.C.), Egan Schmitt (Schuylerville, N.Y.), Cam Joslin (Cohasset, Mass.) and Ryan Murphy (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) and junior Joseph Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) registered assists. Senior Nate Mueller (Summit, N.J.) earned his second straight win in goal with 17 saves.

First-year Devin Niles (Hatfield, Mass.) led the Falcons with a goal and an assist while classmate Nathan Dann (Trail, B.C.) also scored in the setback. Fellow first-year Aleksie Filimonov (Saint Petersburg, Russia) had two assists, graduate student Christian Halbig (Queenstown, Md.) added one helper, and junior Frederick Soderberg (Harrison Township, Mich.) finished with 27 saves but took the loss.

The Beavers took an early lead on Fallon's first goal of the season. Kramer sent a pass from the left boards to Fallon in the slot, who one-timed a shot through the pads of Soderberg for a 1-0 advantage at 4:30.

Brown doubled the lead for the hosts four minutes later when Schmitt sent a pass from the right circle to Brown near the left face-off dot, and he one-timed a shot into an open net to make it 2-0 at the 8:27 mark.

The visitors got on the board later in the opening frame when Filimonov fed Niles near the left face-off circle on a 3-on-3 rush and Niles beat Mueller to cut the margin to 2-1 with 5:35 remaining in the first period.

Kennedy restored Babson's two goals lead in the final minute of the frame when Kennedy won a battle for the puck below the end line, skated back out in front and ripped a shot past Soderberg to make it 3-1 after one.

After a scoreless second stanza, Fitchburg came back and pulled to within one on a power play goal at 12:35 of the third period. Mueller kicked away a shot from the left point but Dann collected the rebound in the right circle and fired it past Mueller to cut the margin to one with 7:25 remaining.

That's as close as the Falcons would get, despite pulling the goalie in the final two minutes. The Beavers finished with a 30-19 advantage in shots but went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Falcons scored once in three tries with the man advantage.

Babson will play its inaugural Little East Conference game at Keene State on Friday at 7 p.m. while Fitchburg State returns home to host UMass Boston on Thursday at 6 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson leads Fitchburg State 5-0-0 in the all-time series that dates back to the 1970-71 season, although this weekend's games were the first between the two schools since 2003.
• The Beavers are 9-4-1 at the Babson Skating Center since the beginning of last season. 
• The Green and White are 42-3-1 over the past five seasons when scoring at least four goals.
• For the second straight game, both teams wore special jerseys for charity and a pre-game ceremony was held as a tribute to Fitchburg native and Babson senior Jake Thibeault, who suffered two broken vertebrae and partial paralysis in an on-ice collision in 2021 while playing for Milton Academy and has been an inspirational member of the Babson hockey program for four years.